Mario Forte is now
We met outside the back door of 59 Rivoli, the artists squat where I had been photographing on and off for years. I had just photographed his concert, the closing performance of a 3-day jazz festival, but we wouldn’t have spoken if he hadn’t been standing with pianist Tony Tixier, for two reasons: I’m shy and he resembles Rasputin.
Earlier that same day, Tony had walked in yelling, “Who is Danielle Voirin?!?!” He’d seen my blog. I was posting each day, with best photos from the festival, and I think he was surprised to see the emotion in the photos I’d captured.
When he saw me sneaking out the back door like an introvert who’s ready to go home, he kindly introduced me to Mario as “a really good photographer,” and we became friends, in the way that people who admire each other’s work quickly do.
Many of my favorite Parisians are nomads who keep a foot in town but create/perform/show much of their work elsewhere. Like the center of a wheel with spokes going all over the planet, it’s a city of fortuitous intersections. It’s comfortable, beautiful, geographically practical, but missing an edge, a creative grit that, if you need and can’t manage to keep a hold of here, you have to get elsewhere and bring back with you.
This is what I feel Mario Forte does. You can feel it on him when he comes back to town. And it’s always fresh, because he’s always in motion. Based in Paris, born in Italy, teaching in Lausanne, gigging anywhere and everywhere (Mexico, New York, Paris, Berlin, Lisbon, Austria, Germany), and sometimes recharging in Morocco.
What I appreciate about Mario, in addition to his incredible talent and diversity in musical collaboration, is that he’s really happy to be here, right now. To be alive, exploring, composing, connecting people, and collaborating. He’s in the present moment. not afraid to jump, a person who lives in the river, rather than watching from the banks.
In one of our first conversations about music, I said if I could do anything other than photography, I would be a musician. He then told me that every one of his friends who practices other creative arts all want to be musicians. But perhaps it’s just human nature, music is so connected to our emotions.
One night, talking about jazz over his home-made tagine, I commented on the lack of female jazz musicians. Many singers, not so many musicians. We were listening to Charlie Mingus, there was a solo and he said, “really, can you imagine a woman playing this?” He had a point, it was hard to imagine, but a woman would play something very different, something striking in other ways, ways we haven’t heard yet.
Mario showed up in a dream I had once. In wondering what my mind was using him as a symbol of, I decided to draw a tarot card on the question. I got The Fool card. I’m a total tarot novice, but know the Fool is the spontaneous, free-spirited child within us, creative and unafraid. It’s the way we are in the world before life teaches us to build protective walls around our unlimited potential.
Still, I wanted more info on the card and went to my favorite resource, biddytarot.com, and found some phrases that rather closely describe how I see Mario :
The Fool :
Is all about new experiences, personal growth, development and adventure.
Encourages you to believe in yourself and follow your heart no matter how crazy or foolish your impulses may seem.
Lives a carefree life, free from worry and anxiety. He does not seem to mind if he does not really know what lies ahead.
Enhances courage, risk-taking and the creative expression needed to open up new areas in your life.
Is about to step off a cliff into the material world.
I think Mario had the courage to jump early in life and has been flying like free jazz ever since.